With a lioness-themed rebrand tied to its latest buy, Athira Pharma is roaring into the new year under its second new moniker.
The Seattle-based biopharma has chosen LeonaBio as its new name, and will begin trading under the ticker “LONA” on the Nasdaq on Jan. 12. The fresh branding comes from Leona, a name with Greek and Latin roots that means “lioness” and reflects strength, leadership, resilience and a “commitment to stand with patients facing the most serious diseases,” the company explained in a Jan. 9 press release.
The change marks an “exciting and transformative period for our company and emphasizes our commitment to advancing a pipeline of innovative, late-stage assets both internally developed and strategically in-licensed with the goal of accelerating their path to market and maximizing their potential clinical and commercial impact,” CEO Mark Litton, Ph.D., said.
“Our new name truly reflects our commitment to leadership, resilience, and innovation—qualities that define our expanded mission to deliver transformative therapies for patients battling diseases that need better treatment options," he added.
LeonaBio’s pivot comes a few weeks after its “transformative acquisition” of phase 3 breast cancer asset lasofoxifene from Sermonix Pharmaceuticals, the company said Friday. Leona, in December, picked up an exclusive global license to the investigational drug that excludes Asia and certain Middle Eastern countries, agreeing to pay Sermonix roughly $34.9 million in equity and $75,000 a month, which will be credited against future milestones that could total $100 million.
Lasofoxifene is a selective estrogen receptor modulator that was dropped by Pfizer years ago after a 2009 FDA snub. Sermonix picked it back up to trial the drug in patients with estrogen receptor-positive (ER+), HER2-negative, ESR1-mutated metastatic breast cancer. With a readout expected in mid-2027, LeonaBio is hoping to establish lasofoxifene as the “new standard of care” for certain breast cancer patients, CEO Litton said at the time.
Lasofoxifene joins LeonaBio’s existing drug candidate, an orally available, brain-penetrant small molecule coded ATH-1105 that is nearing a phase 2 study designed to target neurodegenerative diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ATH-1105 is the company’s sole in-house asset after its Alzheimer’s disease candidate, fosgonimeton, failed in a phase 2/3 trial, prompting mass layoffs in 2024.
Along with the name change, LeonaBio’s branding now depicts a lioness with orange and grey lettering, a switch-up from the “A” design previously depicted next to Athira Pharma. Before Athira, the company was known as “M3 Biotechnology," rebranding for the first time in 2019. Athira was chosen from the Arabic word Athir, meaning “a force” or an “energy,” the company said at the time.
LeonaBio was involved in a scandal several years back involving its founder and former CEO, Leen Kawas, Ph.D. Kawas was replaced by Litton after an investigation found that she altered images in scientific work done at Washington State University. More drama ensued during a messy proxy fight in 2022, but when the dust settled, the Kawas situation was brought to light again by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Last January, LeonaBio agreed to fork over $4 million to the DOJ to clear up allegations that it failed to report the alleged research misconduct to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Research Integrity. According to the DOJ, Kawas’ manipulated photos were referenced in several grant applications submitted to the NIH, including one that was funded in 2019.